FLOSSPOLS and Gender

If I didn't know what FLOSSPOLS stood for, chances are you won't either. It's "Free/Libre and Open Source Software: Policy Support". So I guess it's a group that does research and makes policy recommendations concerning free/open source software. Anyway, they recently put out a report (March 2006) on free/open source software and gender which seems quite interesting. I have skimmed through it quickly (reading 75 page reports of this nature isn't something I care to do unless absolutely necessary), but gnome.org/projects/wsop/ sums it up nicely...

"The recent FLOSSPOLS report describes many opportunities that women miss out on when getting involved with computing and free software, ranging from being introduced to computers at a later age, being less encouraged to specialise in computing, having few female role models, having less free time to spend programming than men do, and being on the receiving end of sexism when they do try to get involved."

Gnome (a popular desktop environment for Linux) has been participating in Google's summer of code (where individuals are sponsored to learn about and help with open source software). In response to this report, Gnome has created a "Women's Summer Outreach Program" -- basically a 'summer of code' for women only.

Now I'm not sure about their choice for the program's logo (purple with stars), and I'm not sure how they exactly they would treat trans applicants, but all-in-all... extra points for Gnome. I'm not sure what kind of incentives there would be for a commercial software company to do something like this.

Your comments on this are appreciated.

cheers,

- meku.